This disclosure relates to adapting the braking process for different loads of a vehicle, and to a brake system for a vehicle.
The difference in weight between a vehicle with a driver and a fully laden vehicle gives rise to a large difference both in the feeling or feedback of the brake pedal and in the maximum or maximum possible braking power. The detection of the load or of the overall weight is used only rarely since the necessary additional sensor system is expensive and costly.
For utility vehicles there are controllers for load adaptation (LAC, Load Adaptive Control), which are a component of the electronic stability control (ESC). However, the LAC function is restricted to adapting the stability control. Accordingly, a vehicle with a light load may require a greater degree of stability control for oversteering situations, while a vehicle with a heavy load requires a greater degree of stability control for understeering situations or in order to prevent a rollover. A passenger car does not usually carry loads which are so heavy that they require the use of load adaptive control (LAC).
US 2009/05504 A1 presents a brake control method in which a consistent relationship is produced between the brake pedal input and the deceleration of the vehicle. This requires a complex sensor system.
US 2010/274457 A1 discloses a brake system for selectively actuating a plurality of brakes at various wheels of the vehicle; different loads are not taken into account.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,460,943 B1 describes a method for controlling the brake pressure of a motor vehicle in which a proportionality factor between the deceleration of the vehicle and the brake pressure is tracked in a certain range.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,731 A presents a controller for a brake system having an equalizing cylinder in the master cylinder system; different loads are not taken into account.